Singer Sam Smith Opens Up About His Sexuality for First Time

Singer Sam Smith covers Fader magazine’s July issue, hitting newsstands in early July.

The 22-year-old entertainer confirmed that he has been in a relationship with a man in his interview. Here’s what he had to share:

On his experience with love: “I’ve never been in a relationship before. I’ve only been in unrequited relationships where people haven’t loved me back. I guess I’m a little bit attracted to that in a bad way. In the “Lonely Hour” is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn’t love me back. I think I’m over it now, but I was in a very dark place. I kept feeling lonely in the fact that I hadn’t felt love before. I’ve felt the bad things. And what’s a more powerful emotion: pain or happiness?”

On opening up publicly for the first time: “I am comfortable with myself, and my life is amazing in that respect. I’m very comfortable and happy with everything. I just wanted to talk about him and have it out there. It’s about a guy and that’s what I wanted people to know�”I want to be clear that that’s what it’s about. I’ve been treated as normal as anyone in my life; I’ve had no issues. I do know that some people have issues in life, but I haven’t, and it’s as normal as my right arm. I want to make it a normality because this is a non-issue. People wouldn’t ask a straight person these questions. I’ve tried to be clever with this album, because it’s also important to me that my music reaches everybody. I’ve made my music so that it could be about anything and everybody�” whether it’s a guy, a female or a goat�”and everybody can relate to that. I’m not in this industry to talk about my personal life unless it’s in a musical form.”

Check out Sam‘s latest music video for “Leave Your Lover.”

For more from Sam, visit TheFader.com. Bigger cover inside…